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Pliaskis ’14 a Campus Network Administrator, Founder of TedxWes

In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we speak with Edgar Pliaskis from the Class of 2014.

Q: Where are you from and what attracted you to Wesleyan?

A: I was born in Vilnius, Lithuania and moved to the U.S. about 10 years ago. For me, Wesleyan was always a small school and away from a big city—a beautiful environment to earn a degree and make lifelong friends.

Q: What are you majoring in and why?

A: I am double majoring in economics and Italian. I picked Italian because I was always interested in languages—Italian is a very beautiful language that is related to art and history, but most importantly it is extremely different from all the other languages that I know already. I have to also admit that Professor Viale is another reason why I picked Italian—she was extremely friendly and kind during one of the events my freshman year. I picked economics because it has a beautiful balance between mathematics, culture, and history—all of the things that interest me. There is a lot to carry away from the major.

Q: What courses are you taking this semester? Any favorites?

A: Currently I am enrolled in “Environmental Resource Economics,” “The Courtier and the Courtesan,” and “Philosophy and the Movies.” Although I enjoy all of them, the latter is my favorite because it is outside of my major and the study of film always interested me. From all of the film classes that I took at Wesleyan, I always took away something that changed the way I watch movies and that is the most direct, most apparent change within me.

Q: Tell us about your student job working for Information Technology Services. Will you use this experience after Wesleyan?

A: Currently, I do all kinds of work for ITS. I am a campus network manager—I bring back Internet to the woodframe houses if it is not working properly. At the same time I aid students with the computer troubles while working at the ITS Helpdesk, and help administrators while working as a desktop support specialist assistant. This semester you can find me at the Helpdesk sometime between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, but if there is trouble, I am there more often. The ITS skills are always helpful anywhere and I am hopeful that I will be able to use them, if not all the time, then once in awhile.

Q: What do you like best about being a Wesleyan student?

A: I love the freedom that I have with different courses that I can take. This is extremely important for who I am—I like exploring things and dive into subjects that I have never heard before or know anything about. I take advantage of this every semester.

Q: Are you involved in any extra curricular activities?

A: I am a founder of TedxWes. Together with my friend, I organized the first TedxWes conference last semester. We are planning to make a bigger and more open to the public conference this coming semester with hopes that this, eventually, will turn into a campus tradition.

Q: What are your plans after graduating?

A: Currently everything is up in the air! I am applying to jobs, and graduate schools.